Wednesday, 13 April 2011

I really enjoyed doing this project, Editorial is possibly one of my favorite topics in Graphic Design, So I loved having the opportunity to do this.

At first I wasn't sure on my topic, but eventually once I got into it, the concept just came to me (Jim McElvaney style).

What I didn't enjoy:

There wasn't anything that I didn't enjoy about this project, I love Editorial Design, and I had fun working on the magazine spread.

Problems encountered:

The only problem I encountered, was developing an idea, as it's hard to think of something when it was 'Newcastle and the Arts' I tried to do something original, and in the end looked at lazarides and found Jim McElvaneys exhibition.

What went well:

Everything about this project went well, it was straight forward with putting it together, especially from the tutorials given on InDesign in I.T sessions. It really helped my understanding of the program and I was able to put a successful editorial piece together, and I'm satisfied with the outcome.

New skills learned:

Creating a successful piece of editorial design.

SWOT conclusion:

Strengths:

Development, I'm very quick when developing an idea, and I produce lots of variations.

Weaknesses:

Idea Generation (sometimes!) it depends of the topic given, sometimes I find it hard at first to get into the project to gain ideas and concepts

Opportunities:

I will continue to work on Idea Generation

Threats:

Again, just Idea generation, but I'm continuing to work on this with every project.

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

As a PPD Task, the class was asked to research into current Design Competitions,

I looked at quite a few, but these were the ones which I found most useful and most interesting.

D&AD is a well known Design Awards so this was one of the first that I thought of.

My favorite Design Competition website was graphiccompetitions.com because it had a variety of competitions, instead of just one. It also caters for all design categories, so it had lots of graphic design briefs and photography, advertising, etc. So it's my favorite from the bunch!

I also liked it because of the variation in briefs, it wasn't just general artworks which can be entered in by designers, It also had briefs where you can design an accessory, packaging, etc.

I really enjoyed this task, it opened my eyes and made me more aware of the competitions which are available to enter into, and I will definitely keep checking, as doing this expands my portfolio too!

Monday, 11 April 2011

We were shown this in class, I think it's amazing! It mental seeing all the different logos in this, every time I watch it, I always see a new logo. It's really well done, and hilarious. Definitely a one to watch!

Monday, 4 April 2011

Continue developing Double spread and following page in InDesign. Start to finalize, and print development, start annotating to keep up with work.

Tuesday:

Finalize double and following spread, print off and mount onto Black card ready to hand in.Continue with development book, print off any more screen prints, annotate, and begin Written Report.

Wednesday:

Continue with Written Report, Evaluating my Final Piece (1500 Words max). Talk through research, any Ideas which have been taken from it, talk about the chosen Grid System and Layout, following onto the given Topic, what or who I Focused on, what the concept was for the spread, and where I got this from. 'Why why why?' what choices I made and the reasoning behind it.

Thursday:

Finalize Report, add any images which will help communicate what I have written, and print off to put with mounted work to hand in.

Friday:

Go through research and Development, read through annotation and make sure that it's explaining my ideas fully, and finalize to hand in on monday.

Sunday, 3 April 2011

I much preferred this brief to the Seaton Sluice one, I found it more fun and I liked that we could come up with our own concept.

BlueBridge was a complicated project to begin with in terms of idea generation as the client stated they did not want any musical instruments or anything that was too obvious. So it was the idea, which I took time developing.

Eventually the ideas were flowing and I had tonnes of developments, various concepts, shapes, and typefaces. However I eventually narrowed it down to just 3 designs. All designs that I thought were the strongest concept and which suited the style of the record label and the requirements of the client. Which were, to be a contemporary record label, and be focused both on students and industry, as the purpose of the record label is to help students get from college into work so its about ‘bridging’ the gap between education and industry.

My 3 ideas were based on the initial ‘B’ for example I had a basic shape of a ‘B’ with a treble clef cut out of the centre, even though they didn’t want anything obvious I thought that it looked contemporary and that it was appropriate.

The second idea I had (which is my favourite from the 3) was based on the shape of a plectrum, with the block capitals ‘BLUE’ cut out the centre, I thought that it was simple, and again it looked really contemporary.

The 3 idea was the least obvious, I got the idea from a CD cover when researching on the internet. Originally the idea was to have two outlines of CD’s overlapping but I later added the line down the middle to make it look like two lowercase b’s back to back. The line also symbolised ‘bridging’ the gap between two CD’s. The colours I went for were light blues and green/blue and I changed the opacity so the colours showed through each other and in the end creating a great effect.

The Clients also seemed impressed with my ideas, and loved the concept however, there were other ideas put forward which fit their requirements much more.